"Martin H. Greenberg & Mark Tier - Visions of Liberty" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenberg Martin H)

was settled comfortably in a guest chair and scrutinizing the great man himself while a scowling Pummery
scrutinized him. He might have been a retired university professor—tall, slender, neatly bearded,
scholarly. The beard was gray, but Pummery looked young and energetic.
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Dantler passed a letter across the desk. It was not the letter he had shown the receptionist—that one
had functioned merely to get him into Pummery's presence. This one was highly confidential. Pummery
read it with obvious astonishment.

"You're a Galactic Bureau of Investigation Officer?" he asked.

"Officer Dantler, at your service," Dantler murmured politely.

"Nonsense. The GBI doesn't serve anyone unless by doing so it forwards it's own interests. You're here
on a special inspection trip to reevaluate the world's status?"

Dantler nodded diffidently.

"The letter says you are also here to conduct an investigation. The Inter-World Council has something it
wants investigated on Llayless?"

"It does."

Pummery tilted back in his chair and regarded him with puzzled interest. "This is a world without a
government. For that reason, people call it a totally lawless world, and they couldn't be more wrong. The
fact that a world has no government doesn't mean it has no laws. Humankind brings its own laws with it
wherever it goes—sometimes like unwanted baggage it can't get rid of, but it always has them. They are
an expression of the deep-seated customs and attitudes it must live by. Is the Inter-World Council trying
to introduce its own brand of law and order here?"

"Surely you have read the Federation's constitution," Dantler murmured. "I'm here to evaluate the world's
status as the constitution provides and to conduct an investigation of something that has already occurred.
If my investigation confirms information the Bureau has received, then I will see that proper action is
taken."

"What is it that they want investigated?"

"A murder."

"There has been a murder on Llayless?"

"There has. After I have confirmed that the murder has taken place and that the identity of the murderer
has been reported to the GBI correctly, I intend to apprehend the murderer and bring him to justice."

Pummery took the time to read the letter through again, slowly. Then he touched a button and spoke in a
normal tone of voice. "Mr. Jabek, please."